Soppur í føroyskum og sopp í írskum

Abstract

Early in the Viking Age there was a word in Norway s o p p r m. used of «fungus». A compound of this is * m a r s o p p r «sea*fungus» which is unknown today except in Shetland Norn m a r s o p p and Faroese m a r s o p p u r . It is used to denote a porous or sponge4ike mass which occasionally drifts ashore. Zoologists tell us that such things are really clusters of (emty) egg capsules from the common whelk, though those who gave them a name can hardly have known that. M a r s o p p u r is now virtually extinct in Faroese, having been replaced by l æ t t i s o p p u r , also used of anything very light or of people who are uncertain in their opinions or who have none at all.

The simplex Far. s o p p u r , Shetl. s i p p [sap, (sip)] has a meaning, however, which ill accords with Norse, for it means a «wisp of hay», e.g. as is given to cattle. In medieval Norwegian and Icelandic writings s o p p r is attested on!y in the meaning of «ball (to play with)»; a side« form s v ó p p r has these meanings: 1. «sponge» (Ms. from 14th C , acc. pl. u á t a s u o p p u ) , 2. «tumour» (Ms. from 15th C, cf. A l f r æ ð i tss l a n d s III 79j, 3. «ball (to play with)». In medieval Norwegian ballads s o p p has only the meaning «ball», in present.day Norwegian the main meaning is «fungus» with the following specialised meanings: «tumour on trees, tinder (on trees)» «ball made of polypotus betulinus Fr.», «rhizome of nymphaea» and «ball of such rhizome». In modern Icelandic down to the 19th C s o p p u r meant «ball» (now usually b o l t i ) , cf. the compound leiksoppur which, however, is always used in a figurative sense. The special meaning «float (on a fishing net)» is at« tested from bingeyjarsýsla. In modern Icelandic svoppr appears as sveppur and means «fungus». Thus we observe that the sense «wisp
of hay» found in Far. and Shetl. has no parallel elsewhere in Scans dinavian, but on the other hand it is strikingly like the meaning of Gaelic sop (E. Ir. sopp). We can add that Wight, Engl. Dial. Dict...records from the English of the Isle of Man sap precisely whith the same application as in Far. and Shetl. It is possible that the Faroese expressions fara á soppin, vera búgvin á soppin — which refer to a woman about to give birth — are calques on Gaelic, but of this we cannot be certain until we have evidence that Irish uses sop in a similar way. At all events we may assert that the sense of Gaelic sop(p) «wisp of hay» entered Faroese and Shetland Norn in the Viking Age jn the same way as such everyday words as Icel. tarfur, Far. tarvur — cf. Gael. tarbh «bull», and Orkney Norn blatho, Shetl. bleddik, Far. blak (older Far. *blaðak) — cf. Gael. bláthach «buttermilk».